Before your appointment, we will text you a series of screening questions. When you arrive you can call, email or text us for a virtual check-in. Please remember to wear your mask. If you don’t have one we will provide one for you. As you enter our office there is a hand sanitizing station available at the front desk as well as throughout our office. There will be a health screening questionnaire to fill out and we will take your temperature with a contactless thermometer. Our staff also has their temperature taken and the results are posted at the front desk.

We are trying to maintain social distancing at all times. If someone has accompanied you please have them wait for you in their car. (They can browse nearby Walgreens, the Dollar Store or See’s Candy.) One parent can accompany each minor patient. 

Our office follows all recommended CDC, ADA, and OSHA infection control guidelines. All staff wear appropriate PPE. There are plexiglass barriers at the front desk to minimize transfer of aerosols. We have removed all magazines, water and coffee machines to lessen points of contact. High-touch items such as pens and door handles are sanitized frequently. Our new disinfectant will destroy the virus in 30 seconds as verified by the EPA ’s List N which lists proven disinfectants against COVID 19. 

South San Francisco Dental Excellence is located on the ground floor and have our own separate entrance apart from the rest of the building. There is no need to run the gauntlet of entering stairwells or elevators where other tenants and their customers pass by; these are areas where the virus can linger and there are no standards or protocols in place to disinfect these potentially infectious areas. As an added layer of safety, when treatment is finished, our patients can leave via our back exit directly to the parking lot to minimize passing by incoming patients. This is especially important for our limited mobility, immune-compromised and high-risk patients. Our schedule has been adjusted so appointments are staggered to minimize contact with other patients. There are at the most, three patients treated in our office at any time. At 1,800 square feet there is plenty of room in our office to maintain proper social distancing.

Containment and Destruction 

When you enter our treatment room you will be asked to gargle with a dilute hydrogen peroxide rinse. This will reduce the COVID 19 viral load if it is present in your mouth.

During treatment, to minimize aerosols emitted from your mouth, we use our new Leaf suction device. It is more comfortable than the old fashioned suction devices and more importantly it creates a much wider field of suction which allows better containment of the aerosol. In some instances where we need a clearer view we will use our new Purevac system which is a mouth mirror cleverly combined with built in suction so we can maintain constant evacuation of the aerosol even when we are just examining your teeth. 

If the aerosols have somehow escaped, our ADS extra oral suction device placed next to you will capture and contain the aerosols generated as we are working on you. As the aerosol is captured, it passes through a UV-C sterilizer which kills the virus. It then is filtered though a medical grade HEPA filter which can filter out minute particles including viruses at 99.995% efficiency. 

Our workhorses 

As the virus is brought down to the ground, it encounters our next line of defense, The Air Dog air purifier. Our high tech air purifier was developed in the Silicon Valley. The Air Dog constantly monitors the surrounding air quality. Readings below 10 indicate excellent air quality. The air quality is also displayed “at a glance” by colored lights - green is excellent, orange is fair and red is bad. Our Air Dog will automatically adjust it’s purification levels to purify the surrounding air as needed. It uses a five stage purification system including catalysts to destroy particles as small as 0.0146 microns. The COVID 19 virus is approximately 0.125 microns and it usually travels in biological aerosols which range in size from 0.5- 3 microns. In either form these are easily destroyed by our systems. The surrounding air is drawn in 360 degrees from the ground, purified, and clean air emits from the top, thus completing the purification cycle. 

Dr. Tom has personally consulted with the CEO of the Air Dog company to determine the correct placement and configuration needed for optimal air purification in our office. We use barriers, time and distance to prevent the spread of the virus. We use our new technology and equipment to contain and destroy whatever slips past. Our multi layer protection system has been thought out, planned, and specially designed to protect you and our team from COVID 19.